Law & Order

In the criminal justice system,

the people are represented

by two separate, yet equally important groups:

the police, who investigate crime,

and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders.

These are their stories.

I'm sorry.

That's bold,

killing somebody with all these windows here.

This time of night, this neighborhood,

everybody's asleep by the 10:00 news.

Bet you anything not a single witness.

I'll take that bet. What’ve you got?

DOA is Alexander Lockett, owner of the house.

911 call came in at 12:09 from a neighbor,

who heard multiple gunshots.

Any witnesses? None so far.

CSU found a wallet and cell phone inside his suit jacket.

Anything missing from inside the house?

Not that we could tell.

It doesn't seem like a robbery.

Unless the killer was looking for something specific.

What do you got?

Shot three times in the chest at close range.

Shell casings are here, 9-millimeter.

Alexander Lockett,

chief revenue officer at Finley Madison.

The department store.

I was just there buying a present for my wife.

It's our anniversary. Oh, yeah?

Place was a ghost town. Yeah.

Brick and mortar retail is dead.

No offense.

Alexander Lockett was divorced.

Got a grown daughter, Melinda.

She's living in Ohio. She's en route.

What about the ex-wife?

They split up a decade ago.

She's a diplomat posted in Australia.

Confirmed with the State Department

that she hasn't been back home all year.

The guy was a boy scout, former colonel in the army.

Served in Iraq.

Moved into the private sector ten years ago.

Hit it big as an executive

at a mall brand department store, Finley Madison.

Neighbors all say he was a stand-up guy.

Lived alone, but he was friendly and respectful.

Well, somebody wanted him dead.

I mean, a swanky place like that,

he must have had Fort Knox-level security.

He's got cameras covering the backyard,

but the security system's log shows the footage was deleted

via the app on Lockett's phone at 12:10 a.m.

Right after his neighbors heard shots.

Do we have anything on the gun?

We're canvassing the area for the murder weapon,

and we're also looking for any video we can find.

You know, that guy is awfully dressed up

for a midnight smoke under the stars.

I wonder where he came from, who he was with.

Financial workup just came in.

Shows where Lockett's credit card was last used.

Alex is a regular.

Great guy. Really generous tipper.

He lives...

lived in the neighborhood.

Do you know who he was here with that night?

Yeah, the woman he's been seeing for a while.

What time did they leave? Which one?

They left at different times.

Different times?

None of my business, but something was off.

They're usually very lovey-dovey,

but a place like this, you can't help

but notice raised voices.

They definitely argued until she ran out.

And Lockett didn't go after her?

No, he sulked over his whiskey and then paid.

This girlfriend, you got a name?

Yeah, she's the one that made the reservation.

I can't believe he's dead.

Who would do something like that to him?

Can I ask you

how long you two had been seeing each other?

Four months, but it felt like longer.

We were making life plans together.

He was gonna introduce me to his daughter.

Does Melinda know?

She's been notified. Yes, ma'am.

I understand you and Alexander

got in a fight last night.

We had an argument.

Disagreement in a relationship is normal.

It's healthy even.

Well, I guess that depends

on what the argument is about, right?

Well, Alex had been under a lot of stress lately,

and last night, he was in a particularly dark mood.

But when I asked him what was wrong, he refused to tell me.

I chose to remove myself from the situation.

Obviously, I regret that now.

I know you said that Mr. Lockett

didn't share his feelings with you last night,

but do you have a theory about what was bothering him?

Not specifically, but it...

it definitely had something to do with work.

Employees all loved Alex.

He was tough but fair.

And he cared, like, for real.

He worked hard to keep people employed,

but not his fault the company is failing.

So you don't know anybody who would have wanted to hurt him?

Well, I didn't say that.

Yesterday, Sonya Chakrabarti, the CFO, ripped him...

had words with him.

What kind of words? Excessively harsh ones.

It was more like a verbal MMA fight, really.

Here's Alex's office.

Looks more than verbal to me.

Before Sonya stormed out of his office,

she grabbed a glass paperweight and threw it at him.

Just missed his head.

What do you think she was so mad about?

I think they were having an affair.

Why do you say that? She kept yelling at him.

"I'm sick of all the secrets," or something like that.

This Sonya Chakrabarti, where's her office?

Second door on the right, but she's working from home today.

Sonia Chakrabarti. Where are you headed?

I have a plane to catch. What's this all about?

We need to ask you some questions

about Alexander Lockett.

I'm not saying a word without my lawyer.

In that case,

it looks like you're missing your flight.

I assure you, I was not having an affair

with Alex Lockett.

Yeah, we saw the crater you left in his office wall.

You've got a good arm.

You were tired of being his little secret.

You wanted to go public, but he broke it off.

That would make anybody angry.

Why must men always reduce a woman down to sex?

My client is the chief financial officer

of a Fortune 500 company, Detective.

A position I take very seriously.

So why the yelling match?

Fraud.

I discovered that Alex had secured

a $300 million bank loan from the company.

As CFO, isn't that something you should have handled?

Exactly. That's why I was upset.

He went behind my back.

Any reason why?

He inflated the company's earning projections,

wanted to make sure the bank said yes.

So you were upset?

Upset enough to throw a heavy object at him?

That's correct.

But I didn't kill him, for God's sake.

But the truth is,

I really liked Alex.

He was a good man.

Just in over his head, if you ask me.

Meaning what?

Meaning he wasn't cut out for the corporate world.

Didn't like all the politics.

Just did what the CEO told him.

Why on Earth would I murder Alex?

To cover up financial crimes that you made him commit.

Any exposure could lead to an SEC investigation, fines.

Maybe you're looking at jail time.

Guy like you, you don't want.

Except there was no crime.

We found video of you on Alexander's block

less than an hour before he ended up

with three bullets in his chest.

You just couldn't be sure he'd keep his mouth shut.

I went there to calm Alex down,

assure him Sonya's hysterics had no merit.

You scammed $300 million with made up numbers.

You call that no merit?

Projections are made up numbers by definition.

What we did was perfectly legal.

There's no law against being optimistic.

So why cut your CFO out of the loop?

Because she has no financial imagination.

So I told Alex to handle it. Simple as that.

So Alexander had the imagination.

No, but he followed orders.

He was former army, a good soldier.

I knew I could count on him.

Alex was alive and well

when I left his house a little before midnight.

Feel free to verify with my driver.

Now, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen,

I have a company to run.

It's Dixon.

We need to get back to the crime scene.